Bill Ackerman, founder and chief executive of Pershing Square Asset Management (Pershing Square Capital Management), a well-known activist investor, said on Monday that the spread of novel coronavirus's mutant Delta would not pose a major threat to the reopening of the economy and believed that interest rates would rise against the backdrop of a sharp economic recovery.

"I hope its role [the Delta mutant] is to motivate anyone who has not been vaccinated against COVID-19 to get vaccinated. I don't think this will significantly change [economic] performance, "Ackerman said in an interview. "in my opinion, people will see a large-scale economic boom. We will have an extremely strong economic performance in the autumn. "

The Delta mutation is causing a new outbreak in unvaccinated parts of the United States and leading to a rise in the number of hospitalizations. Ackerman says the variant is not as lethal as other strains, and as more people recover from infection, the United States can achieve mass immunity more quickly.

Ackerman believes that as the economy continues to recover from the recession triggered by the epidemic, Treasury yields will tend to be higher in the second half of 2021.

"I think interest rates are going up. I think short-term interest rates will rise much faster than people think, "Ackerman said." "at the end of the year. I think our yields will rise significantly as people realize that the economy is going to recover dramatically. "

Ackerman said Monday's decline in U. S. bond yields provided a buying opportunity for investors. The yield on 10-year Treasuries fell below 1.2 per cent for the first time since February.

"Today's trend. I will borrow as much as I can at a long-term fixed rate based on the current interest rate, "Ackerman said."

Ackerman has been betting on a rebound in the catering, retail and hotel industries. At the end of the first quarter, its heavy holdings included home improvement retail giant Lowe's, Hilton, hamburger mother company Restaurant Brands and restaurant chain Chipotle. He recently bought shares in Domino's Pizza after a pullback.

At the height of COVID-19 's crisis in March last year, Ackerman warned investors that "hell was coming" and urged the White House to "seal the country" for a month. A few days after the interview, Ackerman revealed that his company withdrew its short position on March 23, when the S & P 500 bottomed out and bet more than $2 billion on shorting the market that month.